ST. ELOI.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 1407, 1 June 1916, Page 4

ST. ELOI.

HOW OUR FUSHJERS TOOK THE

salient;

GRAND CHARGE AFTER THE GREAT* MINE EXPLOSIONS.

FRANCE, March 29,

I have already given' a brief account of the capture of 600 yards of German trenches last Saturday, near St. Eloi, but' this adhiev'ement, which is of real importance, • deserves*' more than a passing mention (states Philip Gibbs). The whole 'operation was - planned by fine generalship 7 and carried out " by' the superb dourage ;bf regimental officers and men. [•-•'

It is almost futile to say the men we're splendid. They were the Royal Fusiliers and the Northumberland Fusiliers —the famous Fighting Fifth — and- they showed again, as our men have shown a tthousand times 'in (this war-— that, given a fair chance, they will assault the ' strongest position with an irresistible spirit. ■..■:"■'!-'

. This position was as strong 'as any in the Gierhfati lines. It formed a s-Jjienf in the fork of two' roads leading qtom St., Eloi to Messines, and Warheton, just where th'eeneriiy's line strikes in ward below the southern shoulder of the Ypres salient.

In the centre of this triangle formed by the two roads was a mound or dump which gave them a commanding position over our trenches, "and on on e ' side'' of tli is hillock was a ruined house in which they had one of their machine guns ready to sweep the ground in front of their barbed wire.

They had wired all round the position | very thickly, so that it seemed to make' an impregnable barrier against an in-'- 1 fantry; attack, and #ie network ob trenches behind was faced by a parapet very strongly built of earth and sandbags about seven* to nine feet highj so thati it was like the bastion of a fort. *

If any point of , the line seemed safe from sudden assault it Was this, and but for our work in mining underneath it would have been impossible to assault it Without great loss. The success of the attack depended upon a thousand little details of organisation, upo^ hiding any movement, which might lead to premature discov-' ery, upon the rapidity of the infantry dash, but first of all upon tlie simultaneous effect of the mine explosions. . Suddenly, at 4.30 in the morning, there' was a great noise. It was a noise likej the upheaval of a mountain side or thei eruption of vblcanos — a' ' great roaring blast, which tore the earth open and shook miles of ground' with' a frightful spasm. Tons of soil were flung up in, a black mass on a. long frbntagey and then fell with heavy thuds as though rocks were * being about m the darkness by invisible powers. Before the first scatter of earth had come down our men were away. In spitfe of their heavy packs and all the burden of an assaulting body which has to carry its stores Up,, they went forward oyer their parapets find through the cut wire like a Rugby team in a straight line down to the goal. Two battalions of men got away so quickiy that they were away from their own trenches before the '"enemy's machine guns had opened fire 'on our parapet. '• '; '■<■'.-. That was very quick. Only a minute or so after the last rumbling of the mine explosions had drummed against the. slopes 'of distant hills there was a steady swish of bullets from German machines on each side of ■their salient; which was now a 'wreckage; of earth and human debris. But they were too late. The Fusiließs were well forward* -beyond their line, and^ already '•"■'•flinging' theriiselves upon the -barbed wire in the enemy's position. It- is an ' extraordinary /thing that in spite .of upheaval the barbed wire and the -high parapet which made a bastion ■ in/ front of the German salient still stood Strong.' It is still more remarkable that the Fusiliers swept across as .though the ob-' stacles were of no account. 1 They did? not stop to cut the wire.- It would have meant death to be held up for that long work. - • . ... T

The first stormed through it and over it, tearing their clothes, and their -hands —I ; saw maily lacerated hands among them— and getting over each other's' shoulder and' flinging themselves over in one groat jumbled mass of human energy. - -.-•--

At the outset of the assault manv English soldiers' lives were saved' bv the -cool courage of a young officer and two or three- men. From the' ruined house at the apex of the salient a Ger-.-man machiri*©' gun, With, its 'CreW of six. who had recovered from' the tremendous shock of the explosions; Began to open fire.* The young subaltern** dashed straight for' it arid threw a bomb '- at close range. One shot was enough. It knocked out tho gun with its bfficer'arid several men, and the others wer6''bay6neted. If the bomb' had failed in its' mark a- whole company df Fusilier^ might have been swept down by a scythe of bullets. "

Inside the salient there was but little resistance. Trenches had been blown shapeless, dug-outs destroyed, and communication trenches N blocked up' by' masses of earth, • so' that no supports' Could come up and ho survivors 'in -the" salient could escape; The men who re^ mained alive amid the dead bodies of th'eir comrades had no strength to' re-' sist. • ■ ' •

They were dazed and terrified. They CamVup from holes in the eafth withtheir hands up, shaking and moaning. The most awful thing in war had hap* pened to them, and these young Jaegers from Schl'eswig-Holstein, fresh * to- the trenches, were utterly cowed. Batches of prisoners were taken without trouble) and. only on the extreme right of theposition was there* any attempt at a counter-attack,'